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History in the making

La Galerie du 19M

Clean sweep

This week’s dispatch proves that good design doesn’t exist in a vacuum – that is, unless you’re James Dyson, whose innovative design proved a hit in Japanese homes in the 1980s. Work by Portugal’s diverse creative diaspora is also on show at an exhibition by design collective Sotaque , while Scottish houses find the spotlight in a new book by Aberdeenshire-based studio Brown & Brown . We also meet Polish craft purveyor Katzarzyna Jordan . Kicking things off from Lisbon Design Week is Gaia Lutz.

OPINION: Gaia Lutz

History in the making

“We wanted to explore the relationship between design and craft through the vessel,” Astrid Suzano, co-curator of Design, Feito à Mão ( pictured below ), told me at the closing of the exhibition. The showcase, which wrapped up on Sunday as part of Lisbon Design Week, included an elegant display of vases, flower-shaped brass chalices, rectangular glass jars, small cork holders and a three-metre-tall wooden urn. “Vessels were some of the earliest objects made by humans,” added Suzano, explaining that what united these particular pieces were the marks left by their makers, all working by hand and drawing on the many crafts for which Portuguese craftspeople are known. Suzano is among a generation of advocates who have elevated the profile of the country’s design scene in recent decades. I first met her shortly after moving to Portugal in 2018 through Passa ao Futuro (Pass to the Future), a project that Suzano co-founded to document the country’s craft legacy through a series of residencies and apprenticeship programmes. Now Portuguese artisanship – and Suzano’s work – is at the heart of Lisbon Design Week. Here it’s not a heritage play but part of the contemporary design culture, celebrated for its quality and resilience.

The outlook also permeated Lisbon by Design , a parallel showcase focused on collectable work. The exhibition entrance at Palacete Gomes Freire was marked by three monumental woven bullrush tassels. Macheia, the Lisbon-based design duo behind the piece, took part in Passa ao Futuro’s 2019 summer camp and have since worked with bunho , a traditional basketry technique that uses this native Portuguese plant. “When we began, there were only two remaining bunho artisans in the country but for these new pieces, we collaborated with an artist who has recently taken on the craft,” said Macheia co-founder Iany Gayo. Elsewhere in the palace, designers showcased the versatility that fresh hands and minds are bringing to Portugal’s traditional techniques, from ceramics and textiles to woodworking and glassmaking. Though many of these independent creatives are driving the country’s design scene forward, they do so with little financial security or support. It leaves the industry on shaky ground, despite its renewed reputation as a craft-led destination. Institutional and governmental backing is minimal – as underlined by Lisbon Design Week itself. Founded by Belgian Michèle Fajtmann, the fair remains small from an organisational standpoint, relying on support from only a handful of sponsors. This year, the event formalised its official partnership with the city’s design museum, Mude, for the Young Design Generation award, and took over a shared space at Arco Lisboa contemporary art fair. These are small steps forward but the reality is that without better support, there’s a risk that its contemporary-craft led momentum might stall.

So, what’s the way forward? Again, it might be worth looking to the country’s independent curators and designers: alongside craft, championed by the likes of Suzano, the other pillar of the Portuguese design scene is a sense of camaraderie. Creatives who met through previous editions of Lisbon Design Week, for instance, now join forces in collaborative projects that not only help Portuguese craftspeople to reach wider audiences but also strengthen the identity of the country’s design industry as a whole. Case in point is Luso Collective ( pictured above ), which took over a moodily dilapidated room with arched stone ceilings inside Lisbon’s Basílica da Estrela for this edition of design week. Here the group presented a selection of pieces, including a cabinet of sliding limestone slabs by Rosana Sousa and a large kite-shaped Japanese paper lamp by Violaine d’Harcourt. “Instead of paying someone a 40 per cent commission to sell our work abroad we realised that we could get together and be our own gallery,” said Natasza Grzeskiewicz, the collective’s co-founder. To boost bottom lines and give the industry a sense of security – and truly preserve its revived craft – there needs to be strength in numbers. For the Portuguese scene to flourish, it’s no longer about independent designers coming together but its institutional players too.

Gaia Lutz is Monocle’s Lisbon correspondent. For more news and analysis, subscribe today.

The exhibition: Sotaque, Portugal

Accent pieces

Launched during this year’s Lisbon Design Week, Sotaque – Portuguese for accent – is one of the country’s newest collectives. Its debut showcase brought together designers whose origins span the Lusophone world, from Brazil, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique to Angola and São Tomé e Príncipe. Like many Lisbon Design Week exhibitions, it took place in one of the Portuguese capital’s striking vaulted venues: Moldo Studios, a creative hub and unconventional showroom on Calçada de São Francisco.

Objects on display included a screen featuring Chinese motifs in typical arraiolos embroidery by Mariana Rola Pereira, a Portuguese designer of Macanese origin, as well as typical Angolan basketry reinterpreted in ceramics by Lia Raquel Marques. The exhibition reflects on how diasporic experiences shape the country’s design practice. “All designers speak Portuguese here but not the same variety,” said the show’s curator, Brazilian architect Guto Requena. “They carry sotaques that reveal origin and trajectory.” moldo-studios.com

WORDS WITH... Katarzyna Jordan, Poland

Basket case

Katarzyna Jordan founded the Warsaw-based Visteria Foundation in 2025, an institution dedicated to promoting Polish craft and design on the international stage. After staging popular exhibitions at Milan Design Week in April, the first edition of Craft Days concluded in the Polish capital on Sunday. The project combined an exhibition, basketry workshops and discussion panels celebrating weaving as a historic tradition and its modern interpretations. Monocle met Jordan at the Gawroński Villa to weave through the intricacies of Polish craft and the development of the country’s design scene.

What makes Polish basket weaving such a unique craft? Weaving has been present in Poland for centuries. Due to natural conditions and the availability of materials, folk artisans working with basketry most often used wicker, which remains the most popular weaving material in Poland today. Polish weaving traditions are unique because they are deeply intertwined with our history – including the search for national identity after the years of partition, the desire to participate in global trends while preserving regional character and the resourcefulness developed despite economic and political limitations. Polish weaving is also a story about building community, rediscovering roots and the poetic dimension of design. The exhibition and its subject resonated with a diverse audience because of the nostalgia that connects generations. Basket weaving has been and still is present in the lives of almost every Pole, evoking associations with home, peace and childhood.

You’ve defined contemporary Polish design as entrepreneurial. Could you tell us a bit more about its unique approach to materials and development? Polish design is still in a phase of transformation. After decades of communism followed by a difficult transition period, we are finally seeing a moment when young creators are establishing independent brands and trying to find their place in a new reality. They do so by drawing on Polish traditions, their origins and family connections. It is fascinating because Polish design now has the opportunity to redefine itself. But it is also challenging. Emerging designers learn through trial and error, and do not have as many points of reference or support systems as their colleagues in countries such as France or Italy. At Visteria, one of our ambitions is to stimulate the development of craft across the entire region and unite it under the idea of ‘Slavic craft’. How do you hope to see this industry and its creatives evolve in the coming years? Polish design and artistic craft are on the rise. I hope that this current momentum will also lead to stronger institutional support. Although craft and design have almost always been part of Poland’s cultural landscape, only now are they regaining broader recognition. I’m optimistic because private and public institutions are beginning to collaborate effectively, as our recent partnerships with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Institute of Industrial Design have shown. Craft Days was also recognised and supported by, among others, Poland’s minister of culture and national heritage. visteriafoundation.pl

from the archive: Alco G-Force by James Dyson, UK & Japan

Clean break

One of Britain’s pre-eminent industrial design firms owes its existence to the Japanese. The inventor James Dyson spent 15 years, and built more than 5,000 prototypes, on his mission to make a vacuum cleaner without a disposable dust bag. But vacuum-makers in the UK baulked at the proposal because it threatened their tidy profits from selling replacement bags. At last, a lifeline came from Japanese firm Apex, which saw potential in the compact, fuss-free apparatus.

Launched in 1986, the Alco G-Force became a household hit. Japanese consumers were so enamoured by the upright design, superior suction and pink-lavender colourway that they happily shilled out about $2,000, or the equivalent of €5,600 today, for the vacuum. Just under 10 years later, Dyson was able to set up his eponymous company in the UK and quickly started outselling his bag-peddling competitors. The success story brings to mind all the infuriatingly wasteful products – charging cords, phone batteries, etcetera – that would benefit from some tenacious rethinking. If the idea is good but doesn’t sell, you can always take it overseas.

IN THE PICTURE: ‘Scottish Modern’, United Kingdom

Scotland yards

The sprawling landscapes of the Scottish Highlands have long been associated with untouched nature rather than design-forward architecture. Architects Andrew and Kate Brown, founders of Aberdeenshire-based studio Brown & Brown, are looking to change this perception with the release of their new book, Scottish Modern . This collection of residences, including Aberdeen’s The Arbor House and Cairn House on Yellowcraig Beach, showcases the firm’s distinct ability to fuse different eras of Scottish design.

The studio’s use of natural materials echoes traditional building techniques, while the teachings of important Scottish designers, such as Peter Womersley and Alan Reiach, run through each of the eight featured projects. Complete with impressive full-bleed photography and a foreword by acclaimed architect (and fellow Scotsman) Alan Dunlop, this book is a celebration of heritage and a reminder of the importance of context in great architecture. brownandbrown.studio